Northern Ireland

NI council spends lowest of paupers' funerals

A Northern Ireland council has spent the lowest amount on pauper funerals in the UK.

Armagh Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council spent just £275 out of a total UK cost of pauper funerals of nearly £5.4 million in the last year.

Public health funerals, which are also known as paupers' funerals, are 'no frills' services provided by the local authority, which in general include a coffin and the services of a funeral director but do not include flowers, obituaries or transport for family members. Families can attend if they wish.

More than 3,800 such funerals were carried out across the UK last year, costing councils an average of £1,403.

Birmingham City Council in West Midlands spent the most last year, with public health funerals costing it £990,437.

Nearly a third (31 percent) of families who turned to their local council for a public health funeral did so because they were unable to foot the bill, Royal London found in response to a series of Freedom of Information requests.

Newry and Mourne District Council was the sixty lowest with a spend of £600, while Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council was 1oth with £910.